Quick Synopsis

A woman’s trip home reveals frightening truths in a twisty novel of murder and family secrets.

Publisher’s Synopsis

TV writer Yara Gibson’s hometown of Palmdale, California, isn’t her first choice for a vacation. But she’s back to host her parents’ twentieth-anniversary party and find the perfect family mementos for the celebration. Everything is going to plan until Yara receives a disturbing text: I have information that will change your life.

The message is from Felicia Campbell, who claims to be a childhood friend of Yara’s mother. But they’ve been estranged for years―drama best ignored and forgotten. But Yara can’t forget Felicia, who keeps texting, insisting that Yara talk to her “before it’s too late.”

But the next day is already too late for Felicia, whose body is found floating in Lake Palmdale. Before she died, Felicia left Yara a key to a remote lakeside cabin. In the basement are files related to a mysterious tragedy, unsolved since 1998. What secrets was Felicia hiding? How much of what Yara knows about her family has been true?

The deeper Yara digs for answers, the more she fears that Felicia was right. Uncovering the truth about what happened at the cabin all those years ago will change Yara’s life―or end it.

Book Review

We Lie Here is the second book I have read by Rachel Howzell Hall, and it will not be my last. I find that Hall writes unique mysteries/thrillers and love that she is a BIPOC author who writes BIPOC characters. There are so few BIPOC mystery and thriller authors or at least few published up by the big 5.

We Lie Here is the story of Yara Campbell, a young television writer, who returns to her hometown to throw her parents an anniversary party only to uncover family secrets after some mysterious texts and a murder.

Despite figuring out the big twist pretty early on, I quite enjoyed We Lie Here. The more I thought about it after I finished, the more I enjoyed it. If you like family dramas and mysteries, We Lie Here is the perfect mix of both.

The fact that I was so easily able to guess the plot twist I attribute to excellent character development. While I would not say that all of the characters were equally developed, I found that the main cast was well-written with depth and complexity. They were like real people who I could easily picture.

I came to like the way We Lie Here was written, but I found it to be more descriptive than your average mystery/thriller novel. Because it was not what I initially expected, it took me a couple of chapters to get into it. I thought the plot was solid and interesting. Although it was not particularly fast-paced, I did not have any trouble turning the pages or wanting to set it aside.

Overall, I enjoyed We Lie Here and would recommend it. However, if you find that amateur sleuths or people who investigate things despite the authorities’ involvement annoy you, this may not be the book for you.

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Character development